It's probably a good thing.
Season ends next week for all three grades except maybe one or two guys who might get PM 13 selection - so the whole club can have a nice break and come back to pre season nice and fresh and early.

Sat 3rd September, 09:53AM[FONT=&amp]
The NYC Newcastle Knights were beaten 26-16 by the St George Illawarra Dragons at Jubilee Oval on Saturday afternoon to finish of the 2016 season.

It didn’t take long for the home side get over the white line, captain Patrick Herbert receiving a short pass to score in the fourth minute.

Jai Field missed his conversion, and it didn’t take long for the Knights to get onto the front foot after that, with good work from Kainoa Gudgeon and Heath Gibbs producing an 80 metre set.

Following several penalties back rower Sam Stone scored for the Knights in the 14th minute, Newman missing the conversion.

Four minutes later the Knights were over again as Ryan Glanville grounded a short range grubber beneath the posts.

Eight minutes later fullback Nick Meaney stopped a certain Dragons try to Matheson Johns, hauling the winger out of play 10 metres short of the line.

With 30 minutes on the clock the Knights couldn’t repeat their defensive heroics though, as Gudgeon let a bomb bounce and Herbert collected it to put five-eighth Field through for a try beneath the posts.

Two minutes later Cooper Purcell received an offload ten metres out to get over the line for the Dragons.

Field missed the conversion to make the half time score 14-10, but four minutes into the second period the Dragons were over again via winger Paora Kemp.

The Knights needed to be the next to score, but with 28 minutes left to play the Dragons were over again via Kemp, the winger stripping Gudgeon of the ball in the air to tumble over the line.

Field again missed his conversion, but the score was still 12 points in favour of the home side.

Soon after Kemp completed his hat-trick thanks to some strong build up play from his inside men, but the Knights got the final say of the match when Jamayne Taunoa-Brown scored from dummy-half in the 78th minute.

Meaney was NYC player of the year in his first year at the club and led the team in metres run and tackle breaks I think. He improved over the season and should keep improving.

Farr sounds like a real talent, and had several clubs trying to sign him apparently.

We also have Matt Cooper who was our only player in the under 18s origin pathways camp this year, has played for NSW under 16s, was the top try scorer in our under 16s national title winning side 2 years ago, and was in the NSW under 18s extended squad this year, but didn't make the final team. He also trained with our NYC squad last off season, and probably would have got a run in NYC if Meaney hadn't been in such good form.

In the pre season it was also a battle between Meaney and Matt Soper-Lawler to see who would play fullback, and Soper-Lawler looked better IMO.

So we potentially have 4 really good fullback prospects in NYC, and none anywhere else.

My opinion is that Matt Cooper has a lot to offer in that he is a genuine playmaker with vision who makes a lot of tries for others as well as scoring a lot himself, but he is pretty small - according to the profiles he is 28cm shorter than Farr, almost a foot shorter.

Possible that Matt Cooper just hasn't come on as hoped? He's barely been spotted this year. He scored something like 5 or 6 tries in a game a few years ago in Harold Matts I think, but I'd imagine there's plenty of players who do stuff like that but never even reach NYC. You'd think he would have got first shot over Meaney at the start of the season if he really was good. This is pure speculation though, I haven't seen him play, he could be a gun for all I know.

Possible that Matt Cooper just hasn't come on as hoped? He's barely been spotted this year. He scored something like 5 or 6 tries in a game a few years ago in Harold Matts I think, but I'd imagine there's plenty of players who do stuff like that but never even reach NYC. You'd think he would have got first shot over Meaney at the start of the season if he really was good. This is pure speculation though, I haven't seen him play, he could be a gun for all I know.

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He played Ball this year.
His style has changed from when he was scoring at nearly 2 tries a game in Mathews. This year he was much more of a ball player who linked with others and set them up for tries, but I do remember one scorching try he scored right up the middle of the field where he stepped through the forwards like he was covered in spiders.
I think the only thing that kept him out of NYC is that he only plays fullback and Meaney was going too good to drop.

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Actually I just looked up the stats and Matt Cooper played 1 game of NYC. He played on the wing in the game we lost by 50 to the Cowboys and made 4 runs for a total of 18 metres. On the plus side, he made 6 tackles with 0 missed.

Not too sure where he would fit with Phythian in the picture as well. So many options though, especially with Phythian's versatility in the spine. Long gone are the days where at times Donovan was our primary reserve grade fullback option.

Meaney was NYC player of the year in his first year at the club and led the team in metres run and tackle breaks I think. He improved over the season and should keep improving.

Farr sounds like a real talent, and had several clubs trying to sign him apparently.

We also have Matt Cooper who was our only player in the under 18s origin pathways camp this year, has played for NSW under 16s, was the top try scorer in our under 16s national title winning side 2 years ago, and was in the NSW under 18s extended squad this year, but didn't make the final team. He also trained with our NYC squad last off season, and probably would have got a run in NYC if Meaney hadn't been in such good form.

In the pre season it was also a battle between Meaney and Matt Soper-Lawler to see who would play fullback, and Soper-Lawler looked better IMO.

So we potentially have 4 really good fullback prospects in NYC, and none anywhere else.

My opinion is that Matt Cooper has a lot to offer in that he is a genuine playmaker with vision who makes a lot of tries for others as well as scoring a lot himself, but he is pretty small - according to the profiles he is 28cm shorter than Farr, almost a foot shorter.

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Wrong Matt cooper wasn't our only rep in the origin pathways squad. Brodie Jones, Tom starling, Brendan O'hagan, Kurtis Dark and Matt Crocker all were part of it from the word go with Pasami Saulo, Nash Birch and Braden Musgrove called up from their SG ball form. Also he never made the extended squad either let alone the final squad. I've seen Matt cooper play centre and 5/8 as well as fullback so he can play other positions rather than just fullback. Played one game on the wing this year in NYC after his SG ball season. Coopers claim to fame is that he scored 5 or 6 tries in one match in Harold matts which he got a NSW u16 jumper for. Hasn't lived up to the hype or done anything since but people such as yourself keep hyping him up. Jury is definitely still out on this one.

Wrong Matt cooper wasn't our only rep in the origin pathways squad. Brodie Jones, Tom starling, Brendan O'hagan, Kurtis Dark and Matt Crocker all were part of it from the word go with Pasami Saulo, Nash Birch and Braden Musgrove called up from their SG ball form. Also he never made the extended squad either let alone the final squad. I've seen Matt cooper play centre and 5/8 as well as fullback so he can play other positions rather than just fullback. Played one game on the wing this year in NYC after his SG ball season. Coopers claim to fame is that he scored 5 or 6 tries in one match in Harold matts which he got a NSW u16 jumper for. Hasn't lived up to the hype or done anything since but people such as yourself keep hyping him up. Jury is definitely still out on this one.

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He has more going for him than one good game.
If he doesn't kick on, it will most likely be because he is pretty small, and Brown seems to have a preference for tall players.

He has more going for him than one good game.
If he doesn't kick on, it will most likely be because he is pretty small, and Brown seems to have a preference for tall players.

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Small, his bio on the the knights website is wrong. He is more like 188cm not the 170cm as stated, far from being to small. Have seen him play some blinders but he's not the messiah some think he is. I would actually prefer to see him play in the centres with Heath Gibbs moving to second row who I think had a really solid NYC debut season

Then you shouldn't guess as 50% of the time you are wrong as in this case, just deal with the facts.

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Small, his bio on the the knights website is wrong. He is more like 188cm not the 170cm as stated, far from being to small. Have seen him play some blinders but he's not the messiah some think he is. I would actually prefer to see him play in the centres with Heath Gibbs moving to second row who I think had a really solid NYC debut season

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Are you another pork chop? I've never once hyped him or said anything about the guy. Don't jump on your horse too early.